Forests Monitor Home

Forests Monitor works to increase transparency and accountability of the forestry sector in order to improve governance and management of the world’s forests. Our mission is to facilitate the development of a forestry sector that is truly sustainable and equitable – one that will improve livelihoods for forest-dependent peoples and contribute to long-term economic development within forested countries.

We work to achieve this through investigating and monitoring the timber industry and providing training in forest monitoring and law enforcement. Through these activities we seek to establish an open and transparent dialogue with all concerned actors.

Based on our experience in the field, Forests Monitor has found that industrial logging, rather than contributing towards sustainable development, often drives corruption, conflict and poverty. In response to this, we are exploring alternative models for forest management, focusing in particular on community-based forestry.

Based in the UK, Forests Monitor has a national office in Congo-Brazzaville. With extensive experience in Africa, we have also undertaken projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Russia.

A non-profit, non-governmental organization, Forests Monitor was established in 1993 and incorporated as a private limited company in January 1995.

Latest News

Beta version of new monitoring app available

Forests Monitor and UCL ExCiteS have designed a mobile app to enable local communities to report on forestry activities around their village. You can download a beta version from here.. read more >

New documents for Congo Brazzaville project

Forests Monitor, and our project partners REM and CAGDF, have been busy conducting civil society workshops and preparing our first annual report for Phase 2 of the project. Go to the project page to read the latest news.. read more >

Developing Community Forestry Update

Phase 1 of our project on developing community forestry in DRC is completed, and we are
now waiting for the legislation to be passed by the DRC government. For an update on our results
and outputs, read more >